Idaho Becomes 9th Constitutional Carry State

The Governor of Idaho, Butch Otter, has signed Constitutional Carry into law. It’s worth noting that this only applies to residents. So it’s really almost-but-not-quite constitutional carry. Still, it’s an improvement over the status quo, so I’ll take it. We’ve shown we can go back and improve things later. Bloomberg pulled out all the stops to defeat this bill, and we schlonged him. Pennsylvania was one of the pioneering states in shall-issue carry with a license, and we’re quickly being outdone by other states in this area. Arizona was the first big state with a big city to pass Constitutional Carry. We probably need another one, like Florida or Texas to pass it. Texas lagged behind the shall-issue licensed concealed carry movement, while Florida was a leader. Virginia wouldn’t be a bad pickup either.

35 thoughts on “Idaho Becomes 9th Constitutional Carry State”

  1. Its amazing how ten years ago we were fighting just for shall issue, and now we have NINE states that are Constitutional Carry. I mean not the throw away amazing- literally amazed that we have done it.

    The problem with PA we have the laziest legislature this side of the Mississippi. I mean we had a GOP Governor and both Houses and all we got was preemption enforcement- and they STILL managed to screw that up! How we ever were the leader in shall issue carry I’ll never know.

    1. “The problem with PA we have the laziest legislature this side of the Mississippi.”

      Maybe. But the bigger problem in my active days was, we had state gun rights activists who would give lip service to Constitutional Carry, but actually did not support it at all. And they were the people who had the ear of “The Best Pro-Gun Legislator in the State,” Daryl Metcalfe, who in fact knows or cares nothing about gun rights, but takes his cues from his posse of social conservative supporters. They were actually committed mainly to carry reciprocity in as many states as possible (a great convenience for combat handgun competitors who party with LEOs) and feared that Constitutional Carry would undercut carry reciprocity. And so, while other more junior legislators introduced Constitutional Carry legislation from time to time for their own motives, no one with power ever threw any real energy behind it. Sometimes a reason underlies what appears to be laziness.

  2. I bet Constitutional Carry for residents is de facto Constitutional Carry for everyone, and thanks to the 14th Amendment would become so de jure the first time a non-resident without a license were convicted for carrying without a license.

  3. “…and thanks to the 14th Amendment would become so de jure…”

    I wish for you to be right, but I don’t think the 14th Amendment works that way. The 14th Amendment guarantees those rights which have been recognized as in some way as being those of all U.S. citizens. States and municipalities retain the right to grant privileges to their own citizens.

      1. “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States” –Amendment XIV (in part)

        Once again I’d pray for you to be right, but the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States do not yet include Constitutional Carry.

        1. “nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

          Again, its Equal Protection of the LAWS. A non-resident doesn’t have equal protection.

        2. Before the Civil War in Dred Scott the SC said that “if blacks were CITIZENS they would have the right to keep and carry arms wherever they went (sic)”.

          Carrying arms, concealed or otherwise, is a privilege and immunity of an American citizen.

    1. Sorry but the 14th Amendment doesn’t work that way. It protects all privileges and immunities (nee rights) of the United States, one which is the right to keep and BEAR arms. Constitutional Carry is not a privilege, its a right. Regardless of whether the courts recognize that fact or not.

      1. Supreme Court has incorporated the Bill of Rights against states via the Fourteenth Amendment. Because of an early bad case on privileges and immunities, they use the due process language to do so (what is called “substantive due process”).

        So far only a circuit court of appeal has ruled concealed carry to be such a right. Although the recent per curium Supreme Court case on Massachusetts stun gun ban hints at it.

      2. Give me your address and maybe I’ll send a postcard to your jail cell. You know, to brighten your stay.

        1. You assume that A) I’m willing to challenge and B) that because I’ll be arrested means I’m wrong.

          Both are bad assumptions.

          1. Just because it’s supposed to work a certain way is no guarantee that it will.

  4. The problem with Florida is that we almost had OC-with-license but a RINO senator from Miami refused to bring it before committee. If he had, it would have passed, because the bill passed in the House and the Governor said he’d sign it.

    So we likely need to wait until 2018, when Diaz de la Portilla is out of office.

    Still, for every state that passes Open Carry or Constitutional Carry, it moves us one step closer to making Florida OC happen.

  5. I think we need to pick up one of the more populous Midwestern states: Ohio, Missouri, Michigan, Pennsylvania, or Indiana. As it stands now, “constitutional carry” can still be painted as “It’s okay out there in the Great Outdoor Wilderness, but not here in Civilization!” by the Usual Suspects and their soccer mom target audience.

    Texas or Virginia would be a great pickup for the movement on our side, but the Usual Suspects could spin that with their standard “cousin-humping racist rednecks” attacks on the South. Sad to say, that line of attack still carries a lot of memetic inertia with a lot of people.

    1. Vermont has always been constitutional carry. They aren’t viewed as “cousin-humping racist rednecks”.

      1. You misunderstand me: Vermont is part of the “Great Wilderness,” Texas and Virginia are “Redneck Land.” Take a look at the map of which states have adopted unlicensed carry from the perspective of the Manhattanite, the Los Angeleno, and the Midwestern suburbanite: the places that have it are all in the remote northeast, the South, or the rural north. To the sort of low-information voters that the Anti-Gun Crowd depend upon these places might as well be labeled “Here Be Dragons.”

        If you want to make something acceptable to a majority of Americans, you need to make it “play in Peoria.” Make it a staple of life for Midwestern Suburbia. Fifty years ago, no one in Kalamazoo had ever heard the word ‘cappuccino,’ ‘namaste,’ or ‘quinoa.’ Nowadays, my great-aunt will stop by Starbucks after her yoga class before she hits up Whole Foods.

        We don’t need to just make unrestricted carry legal. We need to make it boring.

        1. “We don’t need to just make unrestricted carry legal. We need to make it boring.”

          A thousand times this. This is why carrying at people is a bad idea now. That’s for rallying the people already on-side. We’ve got everyone who we’re going to get that way, to a first approximation.

    2. In Indiana, we’ve introduced a CC bill every year for the past several, but they just never seem to get anywhere. Other priorities take precedence.

      1. “There’s this mountain of pure diamond. It takes an hour to climb it, and an hour to go around it. Every hundred years, a little bird comes. It sharpens its beak on the diamond mountain. And when the entire mountain is chiseled away, the first second of eternity will have passed.

        You must think that’s a hell of a long time. Personally, I think that’s a hell of a bird.”

        We’ll get there, we will. But our movement has a bad habit of wanting it all, wanting it now, and whining when we don’t. That does not work… We need to keep sharpening our beak on the mountain.

  6. There is a constitutional carry bill pending in KY legislature, with bipartisan support. Looks to be hung up in committee with a hostile chair. Good for ID. We will see this spread over the next couple decades.

  7. CC is happening 3-4 states a year.. Where it needs to happen In Illinois, NY and Md the centers of gun control.

  8. I wouldn’t hold your breath on Virginny with McAwful still in office getting CC. Not sure if Gillespie (R), rumored to be running for Gov in 2017, is friendly towards CC? Plus have to increase 2A friendlies in the VA Senate, since one of the R’s can’t be counted on reliably.

  9. OC in Florida and Shall-Issue in CA/HI via Peruta are the other big wins I’d like to see.

    Both are big population states and losing them on those issues really points up how small and regional (and outnumbered population-wise) the remaining “anti-gun” states are.

    Over-thinking it…

    The en banc re-hearing in Peruta has yet to begin, I believe they are still briefing. After the ruling the parties have 90 days to apply for Certiorari.

    The current “4-4” SCOTUS session ends in late June/early July. From July 15th, 90 days starts about April 15th. Assuming the 9th doesn’t rule in the next two weeks, and assuming the en banc Court rules against us, the appeal by our side could wait to be placed until after this session ends and thus be addressed in the next session beginning in October. Assuming the 4 we assume are “on our side” can delay for a bit, that puts Peruta likely being decided by the next Pres’s pick.

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